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Monday, 8 July 2013

Dendias calls on EU to help Greece with immigration by accepting more migrants

Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias has called on the European Union
to offer Greece more help with undocumented migrants, including other
countries accepting more immigrants to ease the pressure on Greek
society.
The public order minister told BBC’s Hardtalk program
that undocumented immigrants in Greece were “a huge burden on our
society”.
“The pressure that is being applied on Greek society and
to the systems that support it are enormous,” he said. “I am saying the
EU is not helping us enough.”
He called for more EU funding and an agreement to share the number of migrants being accepted into European societies.
“It
should be based on certain factors, for example the area of the
country, its GDP and population,” he said. “I don’t believe there is one
European citizen that thinks it’s right for a small country with a huge
economic crisis, like Greece, to be burdened with 90 percent of the
illegal migrants in the whole of Europe.”
Dendias denied that
Greece was mistreating migrants in “detention centers,” referring to
them instead as “pre-removal centers” and saying that the government was
improving facilities.
He defended the controversial Xenios Zeus
program, which has seen thousands of migrants stopped and searched since
last year, by saying that too many immigrants were crossing Greece’s
border with Turkey and that the center of Athens had been “practically
occupied” by migrants. He added that the scheme also protected migrants
who were being victimized by gangs.
Dendias denied that Xenios
Zeus was a waste of resources since only 6 percent of those stopped were
arrested as it had helped Greek authorities get a better idea of “who
is in the country.” He rejected accusations that migrants had been
abused by police and pointed out that more than 80,000 people were
stopped but none of them have sued officers for their behavior.
“I welcome any judicial process against the officer involved and he will be punished according to the law,” said Dendias.
The
public order minister denied accusations that racist crimes are not
being investigated properly. “Impunity does not exist,” he told his
interviewer Gavin Estler, adding that a special police unit has been set
up to deal with racist crimes.
Dendias admitted to being worried
about Golden Dawn, claiming that “its core is neoNazi and very dangerous
for democracy.” He attributed Golden Dawn’s rise to the presence of
illegal immigrants in Greece cities. “I am not willing to accept that a
tenth of the Greek population has become neoNazis,” he said.
Dendias
also asserted that public unrest in Greece over the last 12 months has
been less pronounced than in previous years. He said that Athens was
“the most peaceful capital” in southern Europe.http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_08/07/2013_508083